LOADSHEDDING HAS ALWAYS BEEN POLITICAL
ENERGY expert Andrew Kamanga says the issue of loadshedding has now become a political issue.
Speaking during the Center for Trade Policy and Development (CPTD) podcast on Wednesday evening, Kamanga said the country had always had loadshedding even during the time of MMD under Rupiah Banda and PF under Edgar Lungu.
“What is important, we are coming from the background of loadshedding, which l think a lot of people may not be happy about. It has become a political debate. But we always had loadshedding, whether it was during MMD time of Rupiah Banda they had to import using a ka power ship. Even the time of PF under Edgar Lungu, we did have loadshedding,” said Kamanga.
It is true that Zambia faced the problem of loadshedding during the previous administrations, particularly under Banda and Lungu.
It was especially acute at one stage of Lungu’s reign actually when Zambians experienced longer hours of blackouts. And even then the matter of blackouts was political, something the current President Hakainde Hichilema exploited upon in lambasting how visionless the administration of Lungu was. The President actually wondered how countries that were situated in deserts had power throughout while a country like Zambia which had a lot of water was bogged in darkness.
However, it is common knowledge to everyone now that Zambians experienced some of the worst blackouts under President Hichilema’s own administration, so much so that at one point the most that Zambians experienced in terms of electricity supply was 3 hours.
The situation has somewhat changed drastically in the last three hours where people are having so much electricity in their homes, whereby the complaints are now being directed towards the issue of electricity units finishing quickly and the units now becoming more expensive.
Some have asserted the the drastic change in electricity supply fortunes is on account of the upcoming general elections in August 2026. Whether that’s the the the main issue or not, at least an effort has been made by the government to respond to people’s cries. And we hope the same will be sustained now and after the elections.
Daily Revelation